The Diamond Door Knob

As a little girl we moved from an apartment in Scarborough into an old house on the streets of Toronto. I was fascinated to live in a house, but there was one thing that I remember that made me excited. There were old doors in the house and the door knobs looked like diamonds. They were actually brass knobs with a carved glass ball, but with little girls eyes and imagination I dreamed that those door knobs were magical and that one day I would put my hand on the door and just like in “ The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe.” I would enter a beautiful kingdom.

Last week I was in an antique store with a friend and I found a door knob that triggered this memory. I bought the knob and have hung it on my bedroom wall to remind me of child like fascination, holy imagination and a little girl who loved to dream.

Susan was a beautiful soul born at the time of change. Her parents were immigrants that had come to Canada for a better life. Her father was an architect and a very successful business man and they had just recently moved from a small suburb to the city of Toronto, into an old house on one of the main streets. As the movers were unloading the van and placing her family’s possessions into each room, Susan was running from room to room excited about the new things she would do here. She was going to have her very own room. She ran into the kitchen and there on the other side of the room was a closed white door. The old wooden door led to stairs that went up to the top level. On the door was a huge glass knob. Susan went over and her eyes were fixed on the door knob, it looked like a diamond to her. As she held the diamond knob in her hands, her imagination began to flow. What if this was a magical door knob and when she turned the handle that she would walk through the door and into a magical kingdom? She closed her eyes and slowly turned the knob and instantly she was in a meadow surrounded with the most beautiful wild flowers. 

As all little girls will do she began dancing in the meadow singing and laughing without a care in the world. She was just happy to have the warm sun beaming down on her face and the beauty of the meadow around her.  She picked up flowers of purple and yellow and green and made a special bouquet.  She lay down on the grassy ground and looked up at the bright blue sky with the fluffy white clouds floating by. Then she took a deep breath and placed the flowers on her chest and crossed her hands and prayed a simple prayer. “God thank you for loving me and thank you for the diamond door knob.”

When she opened her eyes she was back in the empty kitchen with her hand still on the diamond. She skipped away to see what color the bathroom was, without ever opening the door. She knew that she would come back many times while they lived here to go to her new found mysterious place. Moving here was going to be great! – she had discovered a magnificent diamond door knob that led her into a magical kingdom.

Charmaine Hinds June 2014